The Pain Living
by saltandpepperfriends
Summary: Disclaimer- I do not own warriors, but I own the cats in this story. Dappledpaw had a life that made her feel horrible. Everything went wrong. Why was all of this happening? Only one knows why. She goes through a series of pain to the heart from her life as an apprentice. Note that some of things I got from things that happened in my life.


Prologue

The new apprentice looked up at her mother with happiness. "Petaltail! I finally got to be an apprentice." It had been a while since her ceremony that day, but she giggled and joyfully mewed about it continuously. Dappledpaw was proud, even though most cats of all clans went into apprenticeship, not only a small, dainty, tortoiseshell and white she-cat in RiverClan.

Petaltail nodded with a fading smile from the other times her only kit said that. She sighed as her daughter went bragging to all of the younger kits that she was always going to be a pawstep ahead of them. The kits would glare, then attack her every time she said it. The only problem that Dappledpaw had was the absentmindedly way she acts about how hard it will be being a hard-working apprentice. She thinks it'll be a breeze like the way it feels in the bitterest leaf-fall.

The silver leader, Troutstar, looked out his spacious den, his eyes barely reaching over the tail that covered his nose. He watched as the tortoiseshell and white apprentice curled on top of her mothers paws and celebrated her new stage in life. He shook his head and closed his eyes, thinking of all the things that will happen next. The cat sighed, and stirred a little, but quickly fell to a small sleep. Dappledpaw still curled at her mothers paws with a big, bright smile on her face.

Dappledpaw curled up next to her mother as the sun went down. " I sleep inside the apprentices den right?" Petaltail giggled and put a paw on her kits back. As she meowed, she rolled her eyes and held her gaze somewhere else. " Did you think you were going to sleep with the kits?" Dappledpaw jumped to her paws and protested. "It was just a _Question_!" Dappledpaw hesitated, but continued. "Sorry... For the out burst." She stared at the black sky with a tint of white in it from the warriors above. "Good night." She padded away from her mother and stopped in front of the small tangled reeds , grass and moss that the apprentices have to sleep in. She poked her head in to see Pebblepaw, Grasspaw, and Smokepaw in the front of the den.

Dappledpaw pranced over them and went to the back where a small opening was made from a recent small storm. She sprawled out back there, taking up three old nests because all of the apprentices were sleeping up in the front of the small den. Not that Dappledpaw didn't like having that much space, bu she want to be huddled up with the others, a nest right next to eachother. Though, the only nest she could sleep in that moment was next to Beepaw who she'd despised since she was born, she would say. He was only a moon older but acted like he was a leader. But, that was sort of how she was acting towards the other kits, she understood.

She yawned, settled down and closed her eyes. Today was small, though tiring for the former kit, and because of that she quickly fell asleep soon after she got comfortable. On most nights she had good dream, though that night was not tonight. She had a horrible dream, she thought she'd never forget.

She was near the rivers edge with her mentor, Splashdew, and they were hunting. Dappledpaw look in the water with a grin, looking at her face when a fish popped out of the water. It splashed her face and she clumsily fell onto her back. As she got up, a pebble got stuck on top of her back paw, and when she shook it off, she fell face first into the rushing river. Splashdew gasped and horror, and Dappledpaw struggled, splashing the air.

Luckily, Splashdew had caught her and pulled her out of the water. He sighed in relief and licked my head, trying to soothe her. Dappledpaw shook herself awake and thought about it, looking at the glowing, starry sky of the morning. _There will not be a problem about that, I'm sure. There may be something else, but swimming is in me, I'm in RiverClan!_ She thought encouragingly to herself, and with that, she left the den and sat in the middle of camp. She stuck her paws under her and lay there, waiting for any commotion.

A young warrior, Whitemeadow, pranced up to her and mewed. "Why are you up so early?" Dappledpaw freaked out, considering she was snoozing slightly. She jumped up, showing she was so surprised that a cat sneaked up on her. "Oh... Um, I just couldn't wait for my first day of training" She lied, not really, though. She was excited for it, but it wasn't the reason why she was awake so early.

Whitemeadow nodded and shrugged. "Okay." She raced towards the fresh-kill pile, picked up two small fish and ran back. "Here, you need it for your energy today, your first day of training." She pushed one fish towards Dappledpaw, gobbling up the one she kept. "Thanks." Dappledpaw mewed, as she chewed on a small bite.

Later, Dappledpaw ran into the camp with Splashdew. "That wasn't as great as I thought!" She said as she talked with Whitemeadow. "I only got to go through the _whole_ of our territory!" Whitemeadow purred with amusement. "I told you, you needed energy." Dappledpaw shrugged, "I guess so."


End file.
